Dog
by the missing x
Summary: "Richard Grayson, you dog." "Come on. You know you love it," "God, I can't believe I actually went out with you." Zatanna finds out about Dick's birthday activities and takes it upon herself to find out who he spent the evening before his birthday with. 'Tales of Young Justice' arc.


On his nineteenth birthday she kisses him. Not because they're dating or anything, no, that ship sailed a long time ago. It's because they are best friends and yes, it was one of their traditions, one of their many stupid traditions.

She wishes him a happy birthday and he asks her to say it backwards, a sort of inside joke. They laugh and she continues on with Raquel to the Watchtower. Ignoring the questions pushed her way by her friend about the kiss, and she shakes her head to add more mystery to the whole situation, because really- who doesn't love mystery?

Later that night, after Barbara leaves, she sneaks into his apartment through the window and brings in her share of the picnic, a bottle of wine and a whole box of blocks of chocolate, while he fetches the popcorn and movies.

They have heated discussion about what movie to watch, because Zatanna is a die-hard romantic and Dick loves action films. Finally after a few complaints from the neighbours and a whole online check they settle for Mr & Mrs. Smith.

They bundle themselves in blankets and fake toast to the stupidest of things with the wine in wine glasses, they manage to get melted chocolate on the walls and end up on the floor laughing next to each other.

And the movie is long forgotten in the background, Angelina Jolie about to blow up Brad Pitt. Maybe it was all the wine talking but he really wanted to kiss her right now. "Stop looking at me like that." Zatanna scolded playfully, her words lost in the midst of her laughter.

"At you like what?" He asks, playing innocent for the thousandth time in his life. Her eyes narrow at him.

"I know you, Dick. That's your 'I want to kiss you' face. Don't you dare even think about it." She reprimands, pouting at him and glaring. Which, in his opinion, only makes him want to kiss her more.

He tilts his head to look at her fully and she's looking up at the ceiling with the same expression, and he's reminded of the amount of pouting Wally had to do to get Artemis to forgive him after he forgot their anniversary for the second time in a row.

He laughs out loud, the vibrations shooting into her body. And her expression goes back to normal as she turns to look at him curiously. But he just shakes his head with a laugh, knowing that it would drive her crazy not knowing what would make him laugh.

"You know, Tanna, you're really pretty." He looks at her with a smirk that only widens when a faint blush appears on her cheek. She looks back with an apparent boredom and raises both of her eyebrows.

"Is that so?" She asks, mischief slipping into her voice and smile- which was no longer innocent. Rolling over so she was atop of her best friend she lent down towards him and made a last minute direction change and whispered into his ear, "I think you've had too much wine, Mr Grayson."

Dick groans and lets his head fall back on the ground, he should really stop getting his hopes up about them ever happening again, they had decided years ago that they worked better as friends, and only the best of friends.

Zatanna laughs at his gullibility, and relaxed her body so her head was buried in the juncture of his neck and shoulder. Breathing in deeply as she felt his arms snake around her waist. "You are going to be the death of me, Tanna."

"Then you'll die happy." She retorts, her voice slightly muffled by him, but still clear enough that he hears it and laughs out loud. She joins in with him and rolls back down to the spot next to him, their fingers intertwined.

"I'm already happy, especially when I'm with you." He whispers in her ear. And she curses herself for her pale complexion because the fire of a blush that graces her checks isn't one she can pin on blusher.

She also curses him for making her blush, they were best friends, and best friends weren't supposed to say those things to each other. "A ha, and who were you with last night?" She chuckles, taking a poke at Dick's popularity with the ladies.

And she thinks that living in the manor after her father became Doctor Fate only fueled the idea for the tabloids, and certainly didn't help that they were dating.

He doesn't answer though and looks away shyly. And her eyes widen and her face splits into a shit-eating grin. Because she would know that look anywhere, god she watched enough sitcoms to know that look, and maybe once she had it herself- but…

"Richard Grayson, you _dog_!" She squeals sitting up and hitting his arm playfully. "Who the hell did you see last night, or do?"

"Zee." He groaned, and this was why he talked about his stuff with Wally, because it was a lot less humiliating.

"Come on, Dick. I'm your _best friend_, don't you want to tell me about the girl who was whisked off her feet by the charming Richard Grayson?" She pouted, her eyes widening into a puppy dog pout. "Don't make me beg you."

He tuned back to her, titling his head to the side to see her from his position lying down, "What begging are we talking about?" Dick asks suggestively and it doesn't take long at all for Zatanna to get it, and she hits him again as he laughs.

"Dick, that's gross." She whines, unable to help the few giggles that escape past her lips, "Unholy images."

"Come on, Zee. You know you love it." He chuckles, popping an invisible collar and grabbing out his shades and putting them over his eyes. And Zatanna laughs out loud this time, because god, he looks so stupid and childlike.

"God, I can't believe I actually went out with you." She laughed, only laughing harder when Dick's expression changed from joking to a mock scowl. And instead of opening his mouth to say another stupid thin he yanks her arm and brings her on top of him.

Zatanna smirked evilly once she realised where this was going. "Pinned 'ya." She chuckled, it was one of the many games they had come up with during their spare time at the manor, taking inspiration from the greatest movie on the planet, The Lion King.

Dick smiled at her genuinely before rolling over so he was on top, "Pinned 'ya." She rolled her eyes; he always had a slightly childish side to him.

"Come on, Dick. Tell me, _please._" She pleaded, jutting out her bottom lip and summoning the powers of her mystical power to bring on the water works. Dick just rolled his eyes and smiled at her wider.

"You have to promise not to tell a soul." He whispered dangerously, leaning into her ear as if someone could be spying on them.

"I promise."

"Say it backwards."

"I esimorp."

Dick pulls away slightly and says two words that make Zatanna go from neutral to all out crazy. "Bette Kane."

"Holy Batman, you _dog_. Hot dog, hot dog, hot digity _dog_." She screamed, pushing herself upwards and causing Dick to fly backwards. "You scored with Bette Kane? Crap. Isn't she like legally your cousin?" Dick just groaned and sat up next to her, wary of the two wine stains that had just appeared on his beautiful carpet.

"Did you just quote the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song?" He asked, looking at her through askew glasses and with utter confusion. She stopped her jabbering for a second to scrutinise him.

"What's it to you? I can do what the hell I want in my spare time." She rebuffed, challenging him with her eyes to say something about it.

"Hot." He says, and she can't tell whether he is being serious or if this is just the playful joking between the two, because these days there really was no difference.

"Dick, seriously. Where the hell did you bump into Bette?" She asked, genuinely curious, and she can't tell if it's all her curiosity or jealousy, because for her, when it comes to her best friend, those two get very similar.

"At a bar, I was with Wally." He shrugged.

"And then I kissed you today, and Raquel basically did… and then you totally hooked up with Barbara just before." She said with an open mouth. "Dick, I think you have a serious problem. Maybe you should take it up with Bruce, he sure had a problem with it. But he's overcome that, he's got Selina now."

Dick shoved her back to the ground, and she laughs again- for what felt like the millionth time. "You seriously had to bring Bruce into this? And how do you know I hooked up with Babs?"

Zatanna looked at him with a sass look, "You have lipstick all over your shirt and the sheets in your room are crumpled, your not exactly great at subtlety, boy wonder."

Dick blinked, right, sheets in his room. He had to remember that for next time.

"So what? Me and Babs are perfectly okay hooking up." He shrugged. Knowing that Zatanna would want the details and if she ever told Wally he would never hear the end of it.

"You are such a dog. Wally was so right, you _did _grow up to be a ladies man." She said, unbelievable she had lost a bet to Wally West. "I hope your pick up line wasn't, 'I bet you have some good ones.'" She chuckled remembering her very first mission with the Team.

"Don't remind me of that, I was a thirteen year old boy who wasn't very good with girls- and you happened to be one." He whined, falling forwards so he was leaning against her shoulder.

"What about Artemis or M'gann? I didn't see you hitting on any of them." She asked, threading her fingers through his thick mop of hair as he sighed and leant into her embrace.

"So I though you were hot." He shrugged, "Puberty wasn't fun and games 'ya know."

She laughed, remembering all the troubles that accompanied his growing into a man, mainly the voice problem that snapped over a year. His voice would crack at the most unfortunate times, during missions, on dates, public speaking, but the most memorable, once when he cackled and through the middle of it his voice cracked, the Team laughed, the villain laughed, and Robin did not laugh.

"I know, but seriously. We need to clean up. I don't think your landlord will be happy is he find chocolate covering the walls." She says seriously, looking at him with an unstoppable force. And he nearly loses all self-control.

"If you say so." He sighed getting up. Faintly noticing the familiar flash of the paparazzi outside catching his eye. Letting out a frustrated growl he continued on, following her out of the apartment and down the floor hallway to the cleaning closet.

When he finally reaches her she's in a tank top and pyjama shorts, and he's suddenly brought back to the time they had a lapse of relationship.

He walks silently so his arms wrap around her and rests his chine on her shoulder, lightly kissing her shoulder first and getting a breathy laugh from his friend. Zatanna lent back on him, closing her eyes and living in this small fairytale.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing." He replies. His mouth forming into a smirk that just can't be wiped off his face. But Zatanna can't see it, she's already quite tired and ready to doze off. "Do you want to go to bed?"

"Dick." She groans pushing off him and continuing her quest to look for the necessary cleaning supplies, "You've already gone at it once tonight, you don't need another one- with another person."

He immediately lets go and laughs, "Is that all you see me for?" He whispers huskily against her ear, sending shivers up her spine.

"So not the point." She says, rolling her eyes and digging deeper into the closet of supplies, trying to find something that would help clean that damn chocolate off the wall. She sort of hates herself for letting herself be in such a compromising place in this conversation.

"What's the point then, Zee?" He grins at her, winking before leaning against the wall and playing with his fingers. She glares at him for a second before turning back to the closet.

"We're going to clean that chocolate off the wall, before you tell the landlord it was me and _I_ get kicked out."

"Didn't you ever think about using magic?" He shrugged; her head whips back to look at him with a glare that reads 'You-should-have-told-me-earlier'.

"I hate you, Grayson." She growled before storming back into the apartment.

"You love me really." He shouted, following her with a spring in his step, looking at the neighbour that poked his head out the door. "Ladies, am I right?" The neighbour just glares at him and shuts the door.

When he gets back into his place the chocolate and wine stains are gone, and Zatanna is standing at the bench, one hand on the surface and one grasping a wine glass and drinking from it.

"Tired?"

She nodded and looked at him with tired eyes, walking over and putting his arm around her to guide her to a place to sleep. "I know you don't have a spare bedroom, so where the hell are you taking me."

"To my bed, you can take it. I'll have the couch." He groaned, as she pushed her weight on him, not that she was heavy, it was just the force of the push.

"Why don't you just join me? It wouldn't be the first time." She offered, feeling bad about barging in and staying the night. She was supposed to be here to celebrate her best friends birthday, not fall asleep in his bed.

"Zee." He warned, mainly for his sake. "That wouldn't end well." Dick placed her down on the bed, her legs dangling off the edge of the comforter as she sits up and looks at him through her lashes.

"These sheets aren't clean from your previous activities are they?" She asks, raising a lazy eyebrow at the blushing hero, who mental cursed himself for not thinking that detail through.

_"naelc steehs."_

"Now there are clean sheets." She yawned, falling back onto the bed that smelt distinctly of Dick's cologne. If she wanted to make it through the night she would have to stop thinking about him like _that_.

"Goodnight, Zee." He called, flicking off the light and closing the door a bit. Making his way down to the living room he sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

Plopping down and bringing the blanket over himself he wriggled around, trying to get comfortable on the bumpy surface. Light footsteps made their way back down the hallway and he shot up.

"Dick, just sleep in your bed. I know you hate sleeping on the couch." Zatanna said kindly, smiling at him and holding her hand out for him to take.

"Zee." Dick warned, "Are you sure?"

She just rolled her eyes, "If I wasn't sure would I be asking you?" And the expression on her face caused her to laugh quietly. "Dick, nothing will happen."

"And you're okay with this?" He frowned, making a move to get up. She nodded at him, almost to eagerly for just friends, but he followed, taking one side of the bed while Zatanna took the other.

They said their good nights to each other and tried to get some shuteye. But time passes and both of them lie there wide-awake and alert about the other mass occupying the bed.

Finally one of them cracks and he's surprised it's Zatanna and not himself. She moves herself over, snuggling into his side, while his arms automatically wind themselves around her frame and pull her closer.

"Don't overthink this, birthday boy." She whispers to him, as she lets sleep finally take hold on her. He just looks at her now sleeping figure and sighs.

"If you don't overthink it first, Zee. G'night." He says, planting a soft kiss on her forehead before joining her in the realms of dreams and sleep.


End file.
